Moving to London- what areas are good?

nolf

Hello!

Moving to London in August to start a grad job, working in Canary Wharf.
Never lived in London before so looking to rent a house, but after some cycling related advice.

Are there any good areas to live for cycling in London?
Preferably also a good commuting distance to canary wharf via tube (or maybe bike...).

If cycling in London is generally rubbish, are there any generally nice areas for young single men (don't say Soho) within commuting distance to live?

I know that's fairly broad but I don't know anything, so that makes specific questions difficult.

Thanks!

clarkey cat

London is basically dozens of little towns and villages all jammed together and each has its own 'vibe'.
How old are you?
What kind of music do you like?
What do you like to do in your spare time?

For example, Clapham is great for rugger-buggers, Dalston great for trendies and Kensington if you're really posh.

t4tomo

Grad job - canary wharf and cycle commute. I'd say look at something in the East End as near in as you can afford. whilst some parts are a bit rough, its getting a lot better tahn it used to be. Or Surrey Quays / Rotherhythe, quite nice and you have East london Line or you can take you life in your hands and cycle the rotherhythe tunnel.

nolf

Age: 22
Music: I like live Jazz, but music isn't really my life.
Spare time: Generally hanging out in pubs with mates. I like cool bars and cafes. I would say gym but apparently the office has one that's pretty cheap.

I like to pretend i'm trendy, but i'm not (I like good clothes though...).
As I don't know anyone in London I guess somewhere fairly cool with (other?) young professionals would be cool.

Kensington I imagine is out of my budget!
Surrey Quays is nice and nearby, I've stayed in the YHA in canada water before and had a look around the area. It seemed nice and is super convenient for canary wharf!
I've heard Jubilee shuts at the weekend though which would suck.

What proportion of take home income should I look at spending?

Chadbste

I moved down to London in September 2010 as I too got a job at Canary Wharf. I live in Shoreditch and have a stack of options to get to work - I can cycle (although my lapierre DH bike is a bit crap as a commuter!), can get one of several buses or get the Overground/DLR, Tube/DLR.

The area is full of young professionals so it's pretty good if you've never lived in the city before although rent can be quite expensive....

Where will you be working?

clairelc

you could consider somewhere round greenwich - decent neck of the woods, with places to eat/drink & be merry near by, and easy commute to work.

Headhuunter

With the new extended East London Line (London Overground) which extends out to New Crossm, Brockley and Forest Hill in the south east, there are quite a few accessible and relatively cheap areas. If you want to take the Tube to Can Wharf you change at Canada Water. I live in Brockley which is nice enough. It perhaps lacks bars, cafes, restaurants etc on its doorstep but has a nice spacious and green feel.... I suppose cycling from Brockley to Can Wharf may be a pain though as you would have to walk through the Greenwich foot tunnel...

nolf

I've heard nice things about Greenwich and I did look there, but I think it's probably too far from town for me. Also it's shockingly expensive!

I'm starting as an associate at the FSA in September. I can afford something niceish, but I want to save money so that I have the option of doing an MBA in 3 or 4 years, career progression dependant.
I reckon I'll need £20,000 for an MBA so looking at trying to live off £13-1400 a month to save enough over 3 years.

Is £1400 to cover everything feasible to live in something bigger than a cupboard somewhere in London?

mroli

TBH, you'll be wanting to look at a flat/house share on that budget I reckons....

Headhuunter

nolf wrote:

I've heard nice things about Greenwich and I did look there, but I think it's probably too far from town for me. Also it's shockingly expensive!

I'm starting as an associate at the FSA in September. I can afford something niceish, but I want to save money so that I have the option of doing an MBA in 3 or 4 years, career progression dependant.
I reckon I'll need £20,000 for an MBA so looking at trying to live off £13-1400 a month to save enough over 3 years.

Is £1400 to cover everything feasible to live in something bigger than a cupboard somewhere in London?

Yeah I should think sharing would be your best bet but as I said, SE London is relatively cheap and places like Brockley, Nunhead, Denmark Hill, Herne Hill etc for example are in zone 2 however the further west you go, the further you'll be from Canary Wharf. Otherwise there's east London, Hackney etc. You're unlikely to get anything much more central than that on your budget. Central London accommodation is seriously expensive!

Drysuitdiver

thats not a great budget for anything near the wharf unless you want a damp mouldy box.

leytonstone would just about be doable on that and Canary wharf is defo commutable by bike from there

its also easy to walk to stratford or get a bus then you have multiple options to get to CW ( Jube line or DLR)

http://www.bairstoweves.co.uk/Rent/Search/Leytonstone

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to- ... &x=85&y=11

SmellTheGlove

Even among London commuters there are those that will tell you "London's rubbish for cycling" - don't know why they peddle that line, but you can believe it or not as you choose. You needn't listen to me because I'm biased having lived and ridden here all my life, but I reckon that as a city for cycling in it's good today and improving every single hour of every single day. So PR over with.
A colleague of mine gets by very well in Stoke Newington (and God knows our pay is 50% of feck'all - engineers, say no more). That area's no good for tube but a doddle for CW by bike. Walthamstow would be a longer ride but you could take in the marshes and Lea (personally used to do W'stow-Whitechapel daily in the ATs). Mile End is practically walking distance. All affordable. Jubilee Line w/end closures are temporary so don't give that a second thought. Anyhow, good luck and hope you enjoy it!

clarkey cat

what paper do you read?

if you like jazz, are a lefty and wear skinny clothes then Stoke Newington is very nice - and if you want to save cash you can move a bit further out to Clapton area which is an overspill for those that cant actually afford Stokey.

South East London is a bit of a dump apart from Greenwich and Blackheath but they are really spenny.

East London - stuff around Victoria Park would be good for a 22 year old. Loads going on, good pubs, live music and easy-peasy into CW.

Oh to be young again. Or, come out to Walton-on-Thames, we have a waitrose, a homebase and, errr, ummm, nappy changing facilities in all the restaurants.

the_hundredth_idiot

Hey! I felt obliged to defend south-east London until I remembered I'd just moved from Dulwich (which is really quite smart).

Parts of SE London would fit the bill, although not great for cycling to and from work. The advantage of being somewhere on the ELL would be a reasonably easy tube journey into Canary Wharf and, if you lived somewhere like Crystal Palace or Forest Hill, a large cycling club (Dulwich Paragon) and the Herne Hill velodrome virtually on your doorstep.

Plus, SE London is a bit more feasible on your budget.

clarkey cat

yea I've lived in Dulwich too. Its okay but dont think it has much for a 22 year old.

cjcp

I'd look to flat-share. You could live in the eastern parts to keep rent costs down, have a short commute, but easily ride out to Kent and the Surrey Hills on the weekend, or take a diversion down Embankment to Regent's Park or Richmond Park during the long summer evenings without any hassle at all.

Headhuunter

clarkey cat wrote:

what paper do you read?

if you like jazz, are a lefty and wear skinny clothes then Stoke Newington is very nice - and if you want to save cash you can move a bit further out to Clapton area which is an overspill for those that cant actually afford Stokey.

South East London is a bit of a dump apart from Greenwich and Blackheath but they are really spenny.

East London - stuff around Victoria Park would be good for a 22 year old. Loads going on, good pubs, live music and easy-peasy into CW.

Oh to be young again. Or, come out to Walton-on-Thames, we have a waitrose, a homebase and, errr, ummm, nappy changing facilities in all the restaurants.

When was the last time you were in SE London?! Places like New Cross and Deptford are very much on the up. East Dulwich with Lordship Lane is pretty much the equivalent of Upper St in the south (if you like that kind of scene).... Superficially there are some scruffy bits but that's the same with Victoria Park, Mile End etc... To be honest though if he works in Canary Wharf and wants to bike in, it may be better to live north of the river to avoid hassles crossing it...

clarkey cat

Last time I was in SE London was about 2 weeks ago when I departed my house just off Lordship Lane in a removals van.

Headhuunter

clarkey cat wrote:

Last time I was in SE London was about 2 weeks ago when I departed my house just off Lordship Lane in a removals van.

And you think E Dulwich is a bit of a dump? Each to their own I suppose but IMO E Dulwich is far better than a lot of spots around Viccy Park and E London!

clarkey cat

Lordship Lane is quite nice. But would you want to live there as a 22 year old?

Headhuunter

clarkey cat wrote:

Lordship Lane is quite nice. But would you want to live there as a 22 year old?

Don't see why not... I lived in Catford as a 26 year old and that was fine. Lordship Lane would have felt like I had arrived! Catford didn't exactly have much going on but neither it or Lordship Lane are a million miles from central London if you want more action.... When I head to Lordship Lane these days, the place seems to be increasingly buzzing with 20 somethings, certainly far more than it used to be...

clarkey cat

It kind of changes character big time at about 7pm - during the day its all yummy mummys and their £1000 pushchairs and then in the evening you get all the youngsters getting sh1tfaced in the Bishop and Adventure bar.

I lived there for 2 years and thought it was okay. North of the river every time for me though (although I am now in the 'burbs).

Headhuunter

clarkey cat wrote:

It kind of changes character big time at about 7pm - during the day its all yummy mummys and their £1000 pushchairs and then in the evening you get all the youngsters getting sh1tfaced in the Bishop and Adventure bar.

I lived there for 2 years and thought it was okay. North of the river every time for me though (although I am now in the 'burbs).

Yeah certainly London's focus is north of the river and SE has a more suburban feel but in terms of a 22 year old on a limited budget is concerned, for me, Lordship Lane and parts of SE London would win out over affordable parts of north of the river, or at least they would be on a par with each other. If the budget was unlimited then he could live in Islington, a stone's throw from the action in central London as well as Shoreditch, Upper St and Stokey and Dalston which aren't too far away but rent there is high...

Drysuitdiver

was a nice 2 bed flat in loughton for rent in todays Waltham forest Gaurdian (sic)

£800 pcm

central line so good acces to stratford. great for the city. and essex and its cracking riding on your doorstep.

If i was 22 yrs old again i would be in there like a shot.

bigbelly

Greenwich is very nice, Blackheath even nicer, but I live in Lee Green and commute by bike to Canary Wharf. From Lee you end up about a half hour ride, across Blackheath and Greenwich park, then though Greenwich foot tunnel, around Isle of Dogs to the FSA building. That little lot comes to 6 miles each way. If the Greenwich foot tunnel is closed then you can either go across Tower Bridge or Woolwich Ferry. Either route will end up a 10 mile commute each way. Rents in Lee Green are around £1000 for a 2 double bedroom upstairs maisonette... which incidentally I will move out of soon! Not that trendy, but practical is the way I see it. Easy access to Kent / Herne Hill to ride at the weekends as mentioned before.

EKE_38BPM

For Canary Wharf you really want to be north of the river.
I think whoever suggested cycling through the Rotherhithe Tunnel has never been through it. Its horrible to breathe the air when driving through it, so I would hate to try riding or walking through it.

For a 22 year old professional, looking for a flatshare, commuting by bike to CW, a little bit trendy, wants a bit of nightlife etc I would suggest Whitechapel, Bethnal Green, Stepney, MIle End, Shoreditch etc.
Close to work (by bike), close to Central London (by PT), lively, good transport links, nearish to the Olympic site (thats gotta be a good thing, right?), lots of 'trendy' bike shops and quite flat.
Down side?: Buy some good bike locks!

ptr_

Very random, I'm starting at the FSA in September on the graduate development programme. Got an 18 mile commute in from Hounslow, but hopefully will be moving closer to CW after a few months.

You ride road Nolf?

Smirf

As a resident in SE london, i have seen E Dulwich change (for the better), and would recommend it for the younger community!

I commuted into C Wharf from Dulwich, going through Greenwich foot tunnel. About 30 mins in total, and majority of the route is fairly quiet.

Also for cycling as mentioned before, good area with decent clubs, the velodrome, and decent hills out towards biggin hill.

turnerjohn

you never said where your moving from ? If its anything slightly suburbs be prepared for a shock ! I moved from Worcester last year and boy what a difference !!!
Cycling to works def the way to go...I easily beet the DLR and its just a little faster in the car but thats only on a clear run ! I moved to Beckton which tbh hasnt got a great reputation but the bit I'm in (west side) is nice and quiet and cheap...only thing is theres nothing to do ! Canary Wharf or the O2 are on the doorstep or theres central. Its a fab commute in (my housemate works in Canary Wharf to). I would highly recommed a house / flat share...check out easyroomate or rightmove etc... there are loads to choose from just make sure the housemates arent nut jobs !
Cycling from a pleasure or training point of view in my option sh*te ! Its at least a 36min ride north to the countryside and you have to pass through some right dives (a lot of the north east isn't great !). X country forget it (for a proper ride that is) plenty of parks but thats not my bag am affriad !
Anyways like the guys on here say any of those areas they mentioned are pretty good...SE Londons not bad...Greenwich is really really nice but very expensive...your need room to store the bike(s) so your be paying ubber money...which is what put me off !
Also depends how far you want to commute oh and also what your like riding in traffic (London traffic is quite unlike anything I've experienced !). Your also need to sort out shirts and office stuff which is a pain at first but your get there...just ,make sure work have showers oh and good bike storage.... oh and as EKE.. said buy a bl**dy good lock...I've got myself New york Farrenhite chain lock as well as two New York D-locks and I still dont feel safe leaving the bikes !